Ancient World Dbq

If ancient civilizations did not invent new ideas and machines, the world would not be in the spot it is today. Innovation is necessary for the continuation and improvement of a society. Ancient cities in the River Valley were very intelligent and knew how to use the resources they could find. Civilizations in the Middle East and Asia, circa 3,000 BCE, showed great success in the areas of government, science and technology, and writing. The cities made advancements in government and the security of their lands.

In the Roman Civilization where the prevalent worship of Roman gods were impersonal and did not provide a moral base or a message of hope, in the fourth century Christianity was formed, born as a movement within Judaism. Christianity emphasized the personal relationship between God and people, slowly spread through the Roman Empire until ultimately dominating the western culture. Three of the several factors that aided to the growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire were: the central beliefs and value of Christianity, prominent figures, and Christianity appeal to women. Christianity offered hope to many, for it was the time of grace and freedom, the time to rebuild the future and

The Nile was the source of everything in Ancient Egypt. Early people built their lives around a river, eventually developing into Ancient Egypt. The Nile did not shape Ancient Egypt literally, but culturally. The Nile grew Egypt’s crops, created its traditions, making jobs, giving life to and protecting all.

There are many civilizations built on rivers. These civilizations experience many advantages, and disadvantages because they live along rivers. Rivers give the natural resource of water. Throughout history many great countries thrived on rivers, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, to name a few. Water from a river can be useful and therefore some civilizations thrived on their rivers, and for other communities the river was their doom.

Christianity, the world's largest religion, with over 2 billion followers, about a third of the world's population, was at one point almost completely wiped out, but managed to come back to dominate the ancient world. What began as Judaism in the 1st century AD, Jesus of Bethlehem, the Messiah who performed miracles including walking on water, healing, resurrection, fishing and creating thousands of fish and bread for the people from only a couple and dying for our sins. Christianity took hold of the ancient world because of eternal life, compassion and equality for people.

The population of Rome was mainly made up of peasants and farmers so when they learned that Jesus was like them it gave them hope of achieving eternal life. Christianity accepts people of all social classes so it spread quickly throughout Rome due to the lower class’s large population. When Constantine embraced Christianity and stopped the persecution of Christians the religion spread like wild fire because Christians could spread God’s word, like Paul, without being

The rise of Christianity and Islam happened during a turbulent time in history, when major civilizations like the Roman Empire and the Persian Empire were in decline due to political infighting, disease, and outside barbarians constantly applying pressure. Christianity was adopted in the heart of the Roman Empire, as a way to continue the influence of Rome, while not being able to control all of Europe militarily. (Rise of Christianity, 2012) Therefore, early Christianity, as adopted by Rome, was about maintaining influence in the continent through the use of priests and monarchs under a feudalist system of control. The main benefit of Christianity came from its use of Latin and the Bible, a common language across the old Roman Empire, as well as a new technology in books that enabled priests to record extremely deep and convincing stories in an easily index able format. The Roman pagan religion used tablets for its mode of communication, tablets which could not hold very much information at all, and that lost legitimacy compared to the life of Jesus and the depth of the biblical writing style. Christianity rose during an age of danger in Europe, and the feudal system with knights and castles was simply the most beneficial system of governance that humanity had. (Stark, 1996)

-DBQ document POV: Moving up in Greek society was possible and everyone could help out

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

One of the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia developed into successful civilizations is by their water sources. In document 1, the river Nile in Egypt flooded every year, which gave the land around it soft fertile ground, great for planting crops. Most people lived near the river. In document 2, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, which was also called the Fertile Crescent, provided food, transportation, and plants. They were especially populated since the area had deserts and mountains. Another reason is their rulers. As stated in document 3, the ancient Egyptian looked at their ruler, the pharaoh, as one of their gods in a human form, serving them well and deciding what’s best for the country. Quoting document 4, the people of Mesopotamia

     The government controlled the religion of ancient Rome. Priests were government officials, who were either elected or appointed to office. But by A.D. 100, many Romans had lost interest in their religion. They became attracted to the religions of the Middle East, which appealed strongly to the emotions. Christianity, one of the Middle Eastern religions, gained many followers.

How did Christianity become a major world religion? Saint Paul had a huge impact on the development of Christianity. He spread the word of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire by visiting synagogues, preaching, and writing letters. Without Saint Paul, Christianity would not have been a major religion of the world, instead, another would have likely taken its place.

For many years, Christianity was illegal. Often, it was essentially ignored, but there were time periods where the Christians in all the conquered areas were persecuted for not making sacrifices to the ancient gods. Finally, when Theodosius made Christianity the favored religion of the state and decided the orthodoxy of the New Testament, the era of European Christianity began. The idea of a fully human and yet fully divine messiah began at this time and also the idea of a Bishop in Rome presiding over the entirety of Christianity. All of this set the stage for the Christian beliefs still held today.

The Christian religions rise to supremacy in the middle ages was the result of several factors. Christians had long been persecuted by the Roman Empire because the Romans felt that Christianity challenged and offended the Greco-Roman Gods and the Christians were prone to revolt against Roman rule. Christianity survived because it had many teachings that appealed to the downtrodden in Roman society, these teachings being that even though they were suffering they would gain equality and possibly superiority in the next life, Christianity gave them hope.

In conclusion, Christianity spread because of the guidance influenced by love, the courage of the martyrs that were willingly persecuted, and the overall teachings that appealed to the plebeians. These reasons and many more aided in the popularity of Christianity in the contemporary lifestyle of the everyday American. In brief, this was why this religion that had just been born developed into what it is